Additives used in the field of frozen desserts comprise stabilisers, emulsifiers, thickening agents, flavouring agents etc. These additives have to be declared in Europe on the label or packaging as “E-numbers”. Endeavours to manufacture frozen desserts free from additives are increasing with the aim of providing consumers with an “all natural” frozen dessert having a clean label.
Due to their stabilising/emulsifying/thickening properties, the exopolysaccharides (EPS) are being used in the field of frozen dessert. These are compounds which are naturally produced by certain strains of micro-organisms.
For instance, WO 94/12656 (Quest International B.V.) describes new Lactobacillus strains which are capable of producing exopolysaccharide. These are used mainly for their thickening and/or emulsion-stabilising properties.
EP 1 430 785 A2 (Yogurtal S.p.A.) discloses an ice-cream yogurt which is free of additives normally used in ice-cream production. The frozen yogurt contains live micro-organisms generated by a culture capable of also producing exopolysaccharides.
The problem encountered when using micro-organisms such as lactic acid bacteria is that the pH of the final product may be too low for frozen dessert applications.
In EP 1 180 329 B1 (Unilever), additive-free ice cream confections are produced by fermenting a milk composition with a homo-exopolysaccharide producing micro-organisms. The fermentation is stopped before the pH reaches a value below 5.5.
There thus still remains a need to provide in a simple way, a technology that allows producing frozen desserts with low acidity and without needing additives.